Amazon Acquires Audible.com for $300M

The Web retailer will stock up on its selection of audiobooks and other spoken word content by adding over 80,000 programs from Audible.

Returning to the focus on books that launched its now behemoth retail business, Amazon.com announced on Thursday that it had purchased Audible.com, a New-Jersey-based provider of spoken word content. The company reportedly paid $300 million for the company, which will bring its library of audiobooks under Amazon’s flag.

“Audible.com offers the best customer experience, the widest content selection and the broadest device compatibility in the industry,” said Steve Kessel, Amazon.com’s senior vice president for worldwide digital media, in a statement. The site offers over 80,000 programs in total, from books, newspapers and magazines to television, radio and original programming.

Prior to purchase by Amazon, Audible provided audiobooks based on a one-credit-per book system, with credits costing between $7.49 and $12.46 per credit, depending on which plan users selected. All of the site’s downloads were offered with DRM, which may clash with Amazon’s existing commitment to DRM-free downloads from Amazon MP3.